Colored and flavored salts

Is anybody here playing around with colored and flavored salts these days?

I just got some Fumée de Sel (smoked sea salt), along with some of the red and black Hawaiian salts that have been touted about lately. These are all new to me. My go-to salts for finishing are Maldon and pink Hawaiian salt. The two new Hawaiian salts taste kind of similar to the pink one, I think, maybe a little harsher and saltier. The smoked salt tasted, well, smoky.

So far I can see putting all of these on salads and seafood. Anyone doing anything else?

The smoked salt, depending on what it was smoked over, would certainly be a good finishing salt for steaks, etc cooked indoors. This might not work for the coconut+kaffir smoked salt, though...

For the black salt, well, I guess on anything you want to have taste like salty volcanic ash... Other than for making things look pretty, I don't think the coloured salts have much use.

I've always been a little tempted by the exotic sea salts, but I could never figure out what I'd do with them. So I just keep a few boxes of Maldon around. Great table salt, especially on meats and pastas.

Are your friends foodies? Colored and flavored salts look great on a table when you're having a dinner party, but not everyone would appreciate the touch. I was at Treasure Island today and they were sampling a salt with cucumber slices. Depending on how serious your friends are, you could easily assemble a salt flight appetizer with cucumbers or grilled bread brushed with olive oil, and then allow people to experiment. But things like that probably don't win over the folks who have high blood pressure or are otherwise on sodium-restricted diets.

A tasting with cucumbers is a great idea! The traditional use of pink salt is on onions and it looks so pretty. I am a little worried about the "ooh, salt = bad" thing although I don't think any of my friends have actually been told to cut out salt.

The bread idea too-- hmmm, maybe mix salt into butter. I've seen that done with fluer de sel and the texture is wonderful.

I was also thinking of putting a few grains of colored salt on the pale parts of composed salads such as white beans, goat cheese... Also thought of putting them on scoops of rice but I'm afraid people might think the black salt (at least) is sesame seeds and get a salty mouthful they didn't expect.

I'm going to do the cucumbers for sure. On a tray, different colors, with drinks. Thanks!

Another idea...we've been talking about salted caramels in this thread:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=6461

I'm finally going to make some tonight. Some recipes call for dipping them in bittersweet chocolate, then sprinkling a few grains of sea salt on top. I imagine that one of the colored salt would really stand out and would look beautiful, provided the tastes work well together. For my first batch, I'm just using Maldon.

Candy is definitely a promising application. I love chocolate with salt in it. I actually saw some caramels with pink Hawaiian salt by (I think) Vosges. The salts would look great on top of chocolate truffles with savory additions.

The Vosges pink salt caramels were a standout in an already excellent variety box.

Christopher Gordon wrote:The Vosges pink salt caramels were a standout in an already excellent variety box.

Thanks-- I'll have to splurge on some. I saw them at Foodstuffs and it was like my rent for the month. I buy some of the Vosges flavored chocolate bars with savory ingredients at Whole Foods and keep meaning to go into the shop. I'm dying to try the truffle with taleggio cheese.

The Vosges Barcelona Bar (milk chocolate) with gray sea salt and almonds is pretty good. I like their dark chocolate bars better but the salt and the milk chocolate go well together.

If you decide to do an at-home tasting, you should check out this week's (April 14) Reader. Section 1, page 5 has an article about sea salt, and mentions that the owner of the brand "Lot's Wife" does sea salt tastings with beets, cucumbers, apples, pineapples, chocolate truffles and jicama. So there are a few more interesting items to add to the mix, since cucumbers alone might get a little boring.

Last week I was at Chopping Block and sampled something called Truffle & Salt. It's a salt mixture containing primarily sea salt but also some black truffle. It was fantastic. At $23, it had better be . . . but the thought of sprinkling it over french fries and even over steak forced me to splurge. I also think that it would make a great gift for any foodie friend because it's very nicely packaged.

BR wrote:Last week I was at Chopping Block and sampled something called Truffle & Salt. It's a salt mixture containing primarily sea salt but also some black truffle. It was fantastic. At $23, it had better be . . . but the thought of sprinkling it over french fries and even over steak forced me to splurge. I also think that it would make a great gift for any foodie friend because it's very nicely packaged.

Is it this stuff?

If so, it's really great stuff, with a very strong truffle flavor. You can find it online for a bit less than that, but the jar lasts a very long time.

It's a great gift for a foodie.

gleam wrote:

BR wrote:Last week I was at Chopping Block and sampled something called Truffle & Salt. It's a salt mixture containing primarily sea salt but also some black truffle. It was fantastic. At $23, it had better be . . . but the thought of sprinkling it over french fries and even over steak forced me to splurge. I also think that it would make a great gift for any foodie friend because it's very nicely packaged.

Is it this stuff?

If so, it's really great stuff, with a very strong truffle flavor. You can find it online for a bit less than that, but the jar lasts a very long time.

It's a great gift for a foodie.

Yes . . . that's it. Thanks for the picture!